Equilibrium state of a trapped two-dimensional Bose gas

Abstract

We study experimentally and numerically the equilibrium density profiles of a trapped two-dimensional $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ Bose gas and investigate the equation of state of the homogeneous system using the local density approximation. We find a clear discrepancy between in situ measurements and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, which we attribute to a nonlinear variation of the optical density of the atomic cloud with its spatial density. However, good agreement between experiment and theory is recovered for the density profiles measured after time of flight, taking advantage of their self-similarity in a two-dimensional expansion.